Food Security

By 2050, the world’s population is estimated to reach 9 billion people. Can we produce enough food to sustain them without irreversibly depleting our lands and waters? Stanford researchers are addressing this and other critical issues of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation by generating vital knowledge and policy-relevant solutions through the Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE). A joint initiative of Woods and Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, FSE works to connect the dots between water and nutrient management, energy and climate change, national security, gender, education and infectious disease. Its interdisciplinary team of scholars addresses hunger at the global, regional and local scales through a research portfolio focused on seven key areas: food and nutrition security, aquaculture, biofuels, climate and agriculture, agricultural innovations, "deadly connections" and crop and livestock systems. FSE also pursues a robust teaching program and direct science and policy advising by Stanford earth scientists, economists, public health and nutrition specialists, biologists, law and political science experts. Read on for highlights from FSE’s 2014-15 work.

In The News

Europe Wheat Yields Forecast in Study to Fall on Climate Warming

Cites study findings from David Lobell, Woods senior fellow, that wheat and barley yields in Europe may noticeably fall by 2040, due to expected...
May 22, 2014 - By Rudy Ruitenberg, Bloomberg Businessweek

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Bumper Corn Looks Dicey in Drought

Quotes Woods Senior Fellow David Lobell on corn's sensitivity to higher temperatures
May 5, 2014 - By Cindy Graber, Scientific American

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Cornfields Could Yield Less by Midcentury

Describes research by Woods Senior Fellow David Lobell on how genetic improvements have led to steadily higher corn yields, while corn yields have...
May 1, 2014 - By Joel K. Bourne, Jr., National Geographic

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Panel's Warning on Climate Risk: Worst Is Yet to Come

Quotes Woods Senior Fellows Chris Field and David Lobell on findings of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that...
March 31, 2014 - By Justin Gillis, The New York Times

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